IN THE SPOTLIGHT: CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM COMMISSION OF INQUIRY

• 31 August 2025
• In the Spotlight
• SA Legal Academy

Given a recent flurry of messages from the authorities concerned on the commencement of hearings by the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry into allegations of criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system, a timeline of developments to date may be helpful. This is noting an EWN report on 31 August 2025 claiming that the hearings will begin ‘soon’ but nevertheless quoting the Commission’s spokesperson, Jeremy Michaels, as having confirmed that ‘a new date for the hearings will be announced once all systems are fully operational’.

On 26 August 2025 (a Tuesday), the following announcements  were made (listed in order of publication):

• SAnews (the official Government Communications & Information System mouthpiece) reported that the Commission had issued a statement indefinitely postponing hearings scheduled to begin on 1 September 2025
• Justice & Constitutional Development Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi, released a statement among other things drawing attention to the ‘significant progress’ nevertheless already made ‘in relation to (the) Madlanga Commission’, and
• an SAnews report elaborated on the Minister’s official statement, providing background information on the decisions made (presumably informed by the Minister’s answers to media questions during the briefing concerned).

According to SAnews, the Minister ‘was notified on Friday that the Commission would not be able to commence hearings on 1 September as previously announced due to delays on the side of the department’. SAnews quoted the Minister as having said that ‘It was clear at the end of the day that it is practically impossible to intervene in (a) procurement process without compromising what is required by law ... (in) compliance with PFMA (Public Finance Management Act) and SCM (supply chain management) policies’. The SAnews article continued quoting the Minister, who apparently notified President Cyril Ramaphosa ‘immediately’ and was ‘delegated … powers to institute (the necessary) disciplinary proceedings’. The department’s director general and ICT deputy director general were then suspended ‘pending an investigation’.

As far as can be ascertained, the Commission’s statement is not publicly available. However, when reporting on the postponement of hearings scheduled to begin on 1 September 2025, among other things SAnews blamed ‘delays in the procurement of vital infrastructure’. Quoting the Commission’s statement, SAnews also noted that:

• ‘but for the lack of the requirements that the department has failed to procure, the Commission would otherwise have been ready to commence the hearings on 1 September 2025’.
• ‘regrettably, the Commission is now left with no choice but to reschedule the starting date’
• a ‘substantial portion of the three-month period at the end of which the Commission is expected to submit an interim report has gone by without the Commission having heard a single witness’ (adding that ‘this is not of the Commission’s making’)
• ‘the Commission considers it best to fix a new date for the commencement of its hearings once everything that needs to be procured by the department is in place’, and that
• ‘it also wishes to assure South Africans that it is doing everything within its power to ensure that the first witness will take the stand as soon as possible after everything has been procured by the department’.

Interestingly, regarding witnesses the Minister’s statement assured South Africans that the ‘Madlanga Commission has commenced with the preliminary work that includes interaction with the witnesses’.

As SA Legal Academy has already reported:

• on 13 July 2025, the President announced his decision to appoint a commission into allegations of criminality, political interference and corruption in the criminal justice system
• the Commission was formally established on 23 July 2025 by presidential proclamation in the Government Gazette (which included with the terms of reference)
• on 19 August 2025, the Department of Justice & Constitutional Development gazetted a notice making the provisions of the 1947 Commissions Act applicable to the inquiry (the notice included regulations specific to that inquiry), and
• on 22 August 2025, the department gazetted rules governing inquiry proceedings, with a notice confirming that they will take place in Pretoria.

Meanwhile, as SA Legal Academy has also reported:

• on 23 July 2025, Parliament issued a media statement announcing that the National Assembly had approved a report recommending that an ad hoc committee be established to consider wide-ranging security-related allegations to be investigated by the new judicial commission but nevertheless also falling within the mandates of the Justice & Constitutional Development and Police Committees, and
• on 22 August 2025, Parliament’s ad hoc committee published its draft term of reference, which at the time of writing had yet to be formally adopted.

Please click the links below for more information:

• SAnews report on Commission’s statement
• Minister’s statement 
• SAnews report on Minister’s statement
• SA Legal Academy report (including links to all relevant documents)
• 31 August 2025 report EWN report 

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

Follow us on X @SALegalAcademy (you can also join us on LinkedIn and Facebook)

If you use this information in articles, reports and social media posts of your own, please acknowledge SA Legal Academy Policy Watch as your source

0 COMMENTS

LEAVE A COMMENT